Authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists for an attack on New York City tunnels, two law enforcement officials said Friday.

FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city's economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one official said.

Lebanese authorities, acting on a U.S. request, have arrested one of the alleged plotters, identified as Amir Andalousli, the other official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.

A senior Lebanese security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect was arrested a month ago. He said his real name is as Assem Hammoud, and that the native of Beirut admitted to the plot.

"Hammoud is a member of Al-Qaida and he confessed to this (plot) information frankly and without coercion," the Lebanese security official said.

One U.S. official said other arrests in the plot had been made overseas, and not all were in Lebanon. The official would not say how many people are believed to be involved.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut would not comment on the matter.

"We have seen the reports," an embassy spokesperson said. "We are in touch with the government of Lebanon on the case," the spokesperson added, requesting anonymity.

The spokesperson also said that both Lebanon and the United States are developing solid cooperation in the areas of law enforcement and counterterrorism. "Preventing terrorist attacks is in the interest of both of our countries," the embassy official said.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said, "This is one instance where intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase."

This should be a reminder that we really are engaged in an active war on terror. So many on the left have criticized the president's methods for keeping America safe, including the NSA Terrorist Surveillance program, the Phone Call Database, and most, recently, the Terrorist Bank Records program. However, we would not have been able to stop this plot at the "talking phase," as Senator Schumer put it, if we weren't able to monitor international communications.

The New York Daily News that originally reported the story said the plot had ties to Zarqawi and his network before he was killed:

Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the "lone wolf" terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.

It's not clear, however, if any cash or assistance was delivered.

The News has learned that at the request of U.S. officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said.

AJ Strata postulates that the NY Times' illegal disclosure of the Terrorist Bank Records program may have had an impact on this investigation:

There were three ongoing investigations that were impacted by the NY Times' despicable exposure of the SWIFT program which was used to track terrorists cells around the world (not here in the US). It is highly possible the terrorists were adapting and disappearing from the radar screens of the international law enforcement agencies, so action now was required. The word 'scrambling' is not something we want to see when dealing with terrorist threats.

Update: According to Fox News Channel, the actual terror target was the NY-NJ Path Train System. The FBI will have a briefing at 1:00pm

It appears this plot was hatched by people with the same dimished mental capacity as the dumocratic leftie nut who poured a coffee cup of keresene on a chicken wire cage to demonstrate that heat from kerosene could not have destroyed the WTC's. The would be bombers were convinced they could make water run up hill without a pump.

Evidently smart terrorist like smart dimocrats are getting to be a rare commody. They both get a lot of civilians killed with their traitorous rants but actually accomplish nothing other than the murder of civilians.

Okay... so the terrorists are too stupid to kill anybody, so all they do is kill people. Gotcha, Scrapiron.

AJ Strata can postulate whatever he wants. I feel like postulating that the NY Times' leak may have scared these retards into scrambling around themselves, increasing their communications to meet an increasingly unrealistic deadline, thereby making them easier to apprehend. Not the Times' intent, mind you, but it didn't matter that Inspector Gadget never prevented any catastrophes on purpose, now did it. (This is intended as a reductio ad absurdum of the entire idea of a guy sitting at a computer with no access to classified intelligence [as far as I know] conjecturing about the effects of a newspaper story on underground terror cells.)

This won't be a 400 comment thread. We can all agree that we are better off with New York being above water. It will get harder and harder for the administration to try and scare the shit out of people, though, when the bad guys all seem so goddamn stupid.

Again the mental midgets have reared their head. Quit worrying about my spelling. Two hours sleep last night kind of dulls the mind and besides if you understood the word, the spelling was close enough.

Worry about the fact that this operation was revealed by another dimwit holdover leaker before the operation was completed. That leaves some of the terrorist out there to kill you or your family.

The left wing dimocrats would rather see 20+ million killed in the U.S. than see President Bush win the war on terror. That is a fact you can chew on. I'm chewing on wheather to respond to another brush fire and stay out again tonight or just sit here in the air conditioning and not worry about someone else's home burning down. Hey it could be a dimocrats house. Either way it will burn 10 times the timber that would have been cleared to create a fire break (stopped by the all knowing idiot Enviro's). I think my pager is broken, it keeps going off.

By the way I think this is great, Lebannon is working with us. I do suspect that the terrorist didn't quite voluteer information and confession as easily as stated. But do what you have to to protect yourself from the Leftoids...

Are people really saying, 'hey, they were just a bunch of dummies, what where they going to do anyway?' as an argument against why this was a good stop?

Exactly how much intelligence does it take to strap piles of explosives and miscellaneous debris to yourself and detonate it in a crowded area, killing and maiming dozens or more, depending on what you get your hands on? We're not talking rocket science...we're talking about nuts that might decide 'hey, blowing up a tunnel or a train is too much work, we don't know anything about that, let's just steal some explosives and blow it (and us) up on a bus at rush hour.' They might not be the brightest bulbs, but it doesn't take many watts to kill a lot of people.

Scrapiron, the person who criticized your spelling was a friend of yours, it seems. Chillax, man.

"The left wing dimocrats would rather see 20+ million killed in the U.S. than see President Bush win the war on terror."

First, "dimocrat" isn't funny enough to be clever.

Second, substantiate this crazy fucking nonsense. If anybody feels this way, it isn't Democrats, or liberals. It's nutjob post-modern moral relativists who hide out in lit. theory and cultural studies departments at third-rate colleges. These people wouldn't vote for a Democrat if you paid them. They're radicals, anarchists, etc. I spent five years in a university, most of my friends are liberal, and I don't know a single goddamn person who would be happy to sacrifice 20,000,000 Americans out of Schadenfreude.

Good luck with the brush fires. Ma Nature can be a beeeeotch when she feels like it.

As for taking these terrorists seriously, Falze, I think we ought to take them as seriously as their abilities warrant. There is nothing anybody can do to prevent someone from getting on a bus with homemade explosives and blowing themselves up, so why worry about it? The elaborate but laughably engineered plans that keep getting foiled, in New York and Toronto, as well as those idiots caught a couple of weeks ago (I've forgotten the details about them already!) are not enough to scare me. And I live in a densely populated urban environment. The fact that people hate my freedom, or whatever, and would prefer that I was dead and my civilization was wiped off the map, makes me pity the dumb bastards, not fear them.

The timing of this announcement seems rather convenient -- the Lebanese arrested the guy back in April. And where is the outrage about the leak? The story makes clear that the disclosure hindered an ongoing investigation, yet I don't hear anyone screaming "treason" or jail for the journalist or NY Daily News.

By the way, no one is disputing that we shouldn't listen in or monitor these communications -- but follow the law when you do it.

The PATH trains make stops in Jersey City, which is Terror Central in Joisey (the '93 WTC bombers were based in Jersey City). Only makes sense they'd use the PATH, as they'd have cover from the local population.

The would be bombers were convinced they could make water run up hill without a pump.

Don't be so dismissive of what a massive collapse of, say, the Holland Tunnel might do. It's not just a matter of water flowing out of the tunnel into the streets (which is possible, by the way). It's about the flooding of much of lower Manhattan's subway system and underground tunnels carrying electrical and communication lines.

Read here for more, including links to historical stories of the havoc that can be wreaked on dry land when underwater tunnels collapse.

"FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city's economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one official said."

Upon which was commented that:
"So many on the left have criticized the president's methods for keeping America safe, including the NSA Terrorist Surveillance program, the Phone Call Database, and most, recently, the Terrorist Bank Records program. However, we would not have been able to stop this plot at the "talking phase," as Senator Schumer put it, if we weren't able to monitor international communications."

I'd like to point out that none of the programs listed in the comment relate to the monitoring of Internet Chat Rooms, which are the virtual equivalent of chatting in public. Nor did the Senator's comment refer to the opportunity to monitor international communications.

Furthermore, my understanding is that much of the anger is coming from people worried that the US Goverment is monitoring domestic communications and/or concern that the executive branch is taking steps without notification of Congress. There is some worry that there's not enough vetting of the programs being started.

It may all be unjustified, but I think that having Congressmen publicly complain about not being notified of programs (even Republican chairmans of related boards) doesn't help to settle minds in America. (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Intelligence_Briefings.html)